The present application is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/956,474 filed Sep. 19, 2001, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/384,165, filed Aug. 27, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,356,192, which claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/135,862, filed May 25, 1999 and to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/105,493 filed Oct. 23, 1998. The present application is also a continuation-in-part of a co-pending U.S. patent application filed Mar. 28, 2002, entitled “Method and System for Wireless Tracking”, which claims priority to a provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/279,401, filed Mar. 28, 2001.
The present invention relates generally to bi-directional personal and health-wellness provider communication system and in particular to a personal communication system suitable for use with children, vulnerable adults (such as those in assisted living situations), and more specifically, medically distressed persons and those in whom an personal medical device has been deployed, for medical testing, and for other life enhancements.
There are several trends which taken together are causing a change in the way medical services are delivered. Among other things, these include longer lifespan, medical technology improvements, automation of diagnostic processes, specialization of caregivers, the rapid pace of technology that causes a shortening of the amortization of development and investment costs, increasing expense of medical care centers, and the shortage of health care workers.
The results of these trends are manifold. They include moving more of the delivery of services out of a medical center and away from the direct supervision of highly trained medical personnel. They include providing personal medical devices to allow long-term patients to resume a more mobile lifestyle. They include allowing patients to be treated from home for issues of cost and comfort. They include reducing the level of training associated with caregivers so that in some cases, even a casual passerby is able to provide meaningful assistance with devices once associated only with properly trained medical personnel, for example using Portable Automated Defibrillators. However, the remoteness of patients from professional caregivers increases the need for communications systems to monitor the patient, deliver care, and communicate.
What is needed in the art is an improved detection system that is friendly to a mobile user, that is easy to adapt to existing devices, that is easy to install, that is inexpensive, and that provides substantial interoperability between wireless technologies, communication network providers, and other widely used medical and public systems.